Chicago

baths

The heat of Palestine made frequent baths necessary, and in the NT period the Romans built public baths. It was long customary to provide water
for guests to wash their feet on arrival at a house (Judg. 19: 21), and an oval tub for this has been excavated at Samaria. Bathing was a means of ritual cleansing (e.g. of Aaron and sons in Exod. 29: 4) and for purification after ‘leprosy’ (Lev. 14: 8–9) and is a potent symbol of moral cleanliness (e.g. Jer. 4: 14) or of vindictive triumph (Ps. 58: 10).